Well that didn’t take long, saw a honda CR-Z hybrid with a wing and body kit.
(0)Archive for the 'car' Category
Page 21 of 39
Ah yes, good ol plywood on floor of drivers, and tongue and groove planking on passenger floor. You know it, there’s rust. Pulled the stuff out and pulled the carpet, fuzzy stuff, and that asphaltish sheet stuff off the floors. Oh yeah, Flintstone grade rot going here! Driver side is marginally better than passenger, but thats not saying much. Passenger side rot starts to extend into rear floor area also. Fab brought up good point of if I plan to use different seats, if so then don’t need to worry about the original seat cross bar.
Not worrying about rebuilding this as it was floating on rot would be a good thing. Anyway, the good news is I got in touch with a guy on the East coast fabricating 510 floors so hopefully this should be a somewhat less daunting task, something within our capabilities, to fix.
Also found someone else fabricating rocker panels. There is hope!
So it’s done, I’m now the proud owner of a brand old Datsun 510. I have yet to get it home, but check out this old school government form.
Almost everyday on my drive from or to home, I’d look for it. In the garage down the street a few blocks down, the original baby blue, original hub capped, original owner, Datsun 510 Bluebird. This particular one harkens back from 1969, only a couple years younger than me! I laugh when the kids nowadays call my ’85 Corolla old school, now THIS is true Nippon old school. I had always toyed with the idea of stopping by and talking to the old guy about it and if he’d thought of selling it, but I know he’s been pestered by other people already. He does take it to the 76 station right around the corner for servicing, and I’ve talked to the head man there about it. I take my vehicles for safety check there. I’d noticed it has been at the station for the past weeks, longer than usual. And then this past Saturday when I saw it out front with for sale signs on it, I had to pull a quick U-ey to make sure. Oh man, he’s finally parting with it!
This is a cool car. It was often called the poor man’s BMW, comparing it to the BMW 2002. A similar size, shape and also having independant rear suspension, something you didn’t see on many cars of that vintage. Heck, my racer boy 1985 Corolla doesn’t have that. The 510 was actually quite successful in the autosport arena, and still is. Just a few years back there was a race prepped Datsun 510 at the SCCA auto-crosses that posted blazing times. Continue reading ‘Old School’
Saw a bone-stock Honda Civic EX (well bone-stock except the illegally-dark tinted windows – so dark the driver had to roll down his window to see) with a “Type R” badge. Oh, yeah, I’m sure a Type R has that tailpipe that a roll of quarters would get stuck in, and those steel wheels with plastic covers! Sorry, buddy – you’re not fooling anybody. I do believe what the Phillippines flag sticker is supposed to be telling me though…
(0)What’s up with people today? I saw two drivers on two seperate occasions purposely running the red light – not like gassing it thru a stale yellow and being caught in the intersection on a red: It’s slowing down at a fresh red, seeing that the perpendicular traffic hasn’t started moving yet, and purposely entering the intersection on the red! One was a white Dodge Durango minivan (no, it’s not an SUV – tell me the last time you saw one off-road!) from the left-turn-lane into Nalani’eha from Like Like Southbound, and the other one was a white Honda Civic coupe at the top of the Northbound Ka Uka off-ramp from the H2.
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Didn’t really think about it until the alternator konked out after yesterdays rally-cross, but man, I’ve got a pile of alternators! Didn’t especially want to deal with this, but it’s the daily driver and it should be a quick fix. The hardest part is working it through spaces like a 3D puzzle in order to pull it out of the engine bay. It still spins ok, but on closer inspection I see bits of some beige plastic/bakelite stuff, that can’t be good. I dig out three other alternators from my shelf of parts. The mounts match, but the plug placement is different, no big deal, the wires reach. In fact I think 3 out of four alternators say that the broken one is the “wrong” one. Continue reading ‘Alternator Lifestyle’
Damn Chine tires. So today was the second SCCA Hawaii Rally Cross. Still using the daily driver FX16, the other is not ready yet. It was another blazing ewa day out at Kalealoa, no surprise there, though in the shade the air was cooler. Looks like the track people packed down the oval track area a bit, it was a little firmer and not quite as rough, but eventually it did become rutted in areas. Enough that on my final run, this proudly designed in Taiwan tire debeaded. Silly me, when I went to Sears and asked for cheap tires and they pulled up these Nankang tires, I asked if they were Korean and the sales guy replied affirmative. I didn’t notice until last night when I was hurriedly changing out to the wheels that these were instead “Taiwan Design” Made in China tires. Actually some were marked Made In Taiwan, but one had the Taiwan Design thing going. Damn it, they tricked me! Fortunately airing it with compressor reseated it and I even went for a couple fun runs. And on the drive home they felt just as crappy as on the ride out. Did I rant yet on how crappy these tires drive on the road? Does Taiwan Design mean wiggle like a wet noodle? Continue reading ‘“Taiwan Design”’
JB Weld It” is the tag line on the packaging. Well, I don’t have much choice since the part is discontinued from Toyota, and is specific to the FWD 4AGE so harder to find at junkyard. So time to test out the this metal filled epoxy that is JB Weld. I got the stick putty form instead of the classic liquid stuff, since I was going to be creating a lot of missing flange instead of just filling some cracks or holes. 
The specs shows its not quite as strong as the liquid, but hopefully it’ll be strong enough. Cut off a piece of the ‘tootsie roll’ and mushed it up good, then squished it onto the cleaned fitting and molded it into rough shape. Let it set up for day and half and here it is. I then took the Dremel to it and shaped it. So far it looks pretty good. Hopefully when I put it all together it holds! Continue reading ‘“Don’t Scrap It-‘
These guys work crammed into a warehouse space on Ilaniwai Street (Tyke street off of Ward Ave) and seem to be the go to guys for hard to find parts for imports. Been trying to find replacement heater hoses for the FX16, and no one including Toyota has them or were willing to try and order them, except for Napa in Hawaii Kai. But actually Hawaii Kai is not convenient for me during the work week. Ended up finally at Hawaii Import Parts and right off the bat they knew it would be something that would be a little challenge. But he told me he could order them and they would take about two weeks, so the order is in, for two sets. The “store front” is a tiny space in front of the counter crammed full of parts and stuff cluttering the area, but these guys know their stuff. He found the radiator fan thermo switch too, $40 is much better than the OEM $150. I need to find a fan that will fit first though, so I passed on that, but I know they have it. They get all manner of chemicals too, bunch of euro stuff, and every color of RTV sealant that I didn’t know there was! Oh, and check out the “Costco” sized oil eater box if you’re there, called The Tanker at 16 quarts!